Abstract
Debates persist over the knowledge needed to teach elementary reading effectively. In one commonly held view verbal ability is what matters most and the best approach to improving teacher quality is to recruit teachers who themselves are good readers. Others argue that teachers need special forms of professional knowledge that differ substantially from common adult reading and verbal ability. These different assumptions about what teachers need to know are directly relevant to whether teaching reading demands specialized professional knowledge and they have lead to radically different policy recommendations for both teacher preparation and induction. This study presents preliminary evidence that elementary reading teachers can hold a special knowledge of language, text, and reading process that differs substantially from common reading and verbal ability. Implications for the measurement and study of teacher quality and related implications for teacher evaluation and teacher development are discussed.
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Notes
A similar analysis was conducted using logistic regression to test for the stability of the rank ordering of the questions found in the series of t-tests. In logistic regression the questions showing the largest log odds ratio predicting teaching background should also have the greatest between-group mean differences found in the t-test analyses. The four questions with significant estimated odds ratios at p < .05. (#7, 8, 9, 21) also show large and significant between-group mean differences. Further, when sorted by size of estimated log odds ratio, the top seven questions include six of the seven questions with the greatest between-group mean difference, and the top 14 questions include 10 of 14 questions with greatest between-group mean difference.
Answers: the /b/ sound in limb, no; the /g/ sound in talking, yes; the /d/ in budge, no; the /t/ in castle, no; the /n/ sound in bunch, yes; the /h/ sound in push, no.
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Phelps, G. Just knowing how to read isn't enough! Assessing knowledge for teaching reading. Educ Asse Eval Acc 21, 137–154 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11092-009-9070-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11092-009-9070-6